Attending the
Odyssey Writing Workshop for Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror Writers was
simultaneous heaven and hell. Heaven because I devoted six weeks to learning,
practicing, critiquing, and polishing my craft. Hell because I devoted six
weeks to learning, practicing . . . well, you get the picture.

As
writers, many of us have known at least some need for procrastination, whether
it be that the dishes need to be done or the children need our attention. At Odyssey,
we had none of those distractions. As much as we needed--craved--distractions,
there simply was not time for them.

Each
morning we had three hours of class which included lectures from Jeanne
Cavelos, Science Fiction writer and former editor at Dell Publishing, and two
hours of critiquing stories of classmates. Each Friday we had a guest author
come and give a lecture for the morning and then critiquing in the afternoon.
Otherwise, afternoons were spent critiquing classmates work, completing practice
assignments, and writing our own short stories. The majority of our writing
was done on the weekends and late into the evenings. Odyssey is set up so that
every student has a story critiqued each week. That’s a lot of writing for six
weeks.

Consequently,
we were all broken of the procrastination habit rather quickly. Key to ending
the procrastination is learning how to shut up the internal editor until there
is actually something there for it to edit.

The
combination of lectures, critiquing, and writing a story a week, sped up the
learning process for everyone. In a class of 16 from all over the United
States and Canada, we all came to Odyssey with different strengths and
weaknesses. Reading and critiquing each other’s work helped point out our own
weaknesses and how they can be fixed.

And
what can I say about Jeanne except that she is an amazing teacher. Each week
was spent on a different topic including things like setting, character, plot,
theme, and style. With Jeanne’s lectures, private meetings with Jeanne, and
her guidance, each of us overcame many of our writing weaknesses and light
speed.* Jeanne passes on what she has learned from her years of writing and
editing experience. Each class is a wealth of information that would take each
of us a few months or a year to learn on our own.

The
class of 16 Odysseyers is the perfect size for critiquing, and for building a
great community of students. Aside from myself, there was one other Canadian
in the class. Frequently during critiques, our classmates would mention the
use of Canadian phrases and I would search through the manuscript wondering
exactly what those Canadianisms were. The only one I’ve been able to figure
out so far is the word toque.

Our
one big field trip was to ReaderCon just outside of Boston. This, I
discovered, is much like our own Winnipeg International Writers Festival,
except that ReaderCon is for Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror writers. Not
only does ReaderCon have readings, and a great dealer room where new and used
books are sold, but they also have panel discussion among writers discussing
different topics in writing, such as the importance of secondary characters.
As with ReaderCon, all of the American participants in Odyssey were frequent
attendees of various conventions focusing mostly on writing. The genre version
of our Writers’ Festival?

My
Odyssey class was very collegial. Our critiques were given in a way to help
each other improve, not to tear each other down. We supported each other
whenever one of us was having a hard time. None of us competed with each other,
which can so easily happen in such situations.

I
would recommend Odyssey to any Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror writer. It
is the best gift you can give yourself. I have made friends and colleagues for
life. Best of all, I spent six weeks devoted to my craft.

Odyssey
Writing Workshop is an annual genre writing workshop held in Manchester, New
Hampshire. For more information, please visit the Odyssey Website at
http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.

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This article originally
appeared in WordWrap, the
quarterly magazine of the Manitoba Writer's Guild.

Sherry Peters is a graduate of Odyssey 2005. Find out more
about Sherry Peters here: www.dwarvenamazon.com.